Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
Warlord and prophet of Gork and Mork, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka (usually shortened to Ghazghkull Thraka) is an Ork Warlord of the Goff klan and a mighty prophet of the WAAAGH!. He is the single most influential Ork in the galaxy in the late 41st Millennium, and billions of Greenskins march to war in his name. Since Ghazghkull's rise to power, he has led countless campaigns of destruction. He has crushed Eldar war hosts, banished tides of daemons, and smashed phalanxes of Necrons to so much sparking scrap. Yet his greatest battles have always been fought against the servants of the Emperor of Mankind. Ghazghkull's sheer, unstoppable brutality has left countless worlds of the Imperium blazing in his wake and reduced the mighty Hive World of Armageddon, during the Second and Third War for Armageddon, to a never-ending cauldron of bloody battle. Yet Ghazghkull is not satisfied. Gork and Mork have greater plans for their prophet, plans they see fit to deliver amid agonising visions of a galaxy ablaze with green fire. At their behest, Ghazghkull is beginning his greatest work. He will travel the galaxy, subjugating every Warlord and gathering every Ork to his banner until the stars themselves shudder to the thundering footfalls of his horde. Ghazghkull is gathering the WAAAGH! of Gork and Mork themselves, a WAAAGH! that will drown the galaxy in a war so great that the gods themselves will tear their way out of the Warp to join the fight. Ghazghkull's greatest nemesis is the Imperial Commissar Yarrick. History In the 41st Millennium, and throughout all history, the brutal Orks have often been underestimated by the other powerful races in the galaxy. While all have learned to fear the destructive might of the greenskins' migratory crusades, these are seen as temporary events. They sweep across a few systems before stalling, their tide of advance ebbing and ultimately receding so that they become little more than a footnote in the history of some other race. However, the Waaagh! led by Ghazghkull Thraka is different, for this Warboss is the most dangerous Ork alive. His mighty green crusade is no mere planet crusher, but an invasion that will shake the foundations of the galaxy in a war for total domination. As a race, Orks are not bound by history – they neither revere the past, nor record it in any manner. Greenskins are creatures that live in, and for, the here and now. What makes the Ork whose full name is Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka so dangerous, is that he has vision –- not just for the present, but for the past, and most importantly, for the future. After all, he is no mere Ork, but rather the living prophet of the Ork gods Gork and Mork. Ghazghkull is their mighty instrument of destruction made manifest. Early History At the close of the 41st Millennium, the name of Ghazghkull is spoken in fearful whispers in many alien languages, a name synonymous with dread across the galaxy. It was not always so –- the greatest Ork Warlord began his climb to infamy as just another Ork warrior slogging it out on a backwater world. At the very edge of Segmentum Solar lies a now frozen orb that was once the sporadically populated Ork planet of Urk. Its history has been largely forgotten, buried beneath successive invasions, but it was first named Urokleas, after it was founded by an exploration fleet launched from Terra during the Dark Age of Technology. It was part of the Zornian star system, and the tides of the Warp flowed strongly to that point, making it an excellent hub. Humanity prospered on Urokleas, for it was a world rich in minerals, and within a few hundred years the colonies had grown to thriving cities and busy spaceports. It was, undoubtedly, the lights and activity that drew the Orks. They swept across Urokleas like wildfire. They razed it to the ground before disappearing aboard their great junk fleet, riding the Warp tides to seek other exploits. As is their way, though, the greenskins unwittingly left behind traces of their spores, and one day they would rise again. Due to the flow of the Warp, it was inevitable that space-faring races would again find the habitable Zornian System. Between barren periods, the world became an Eldar outpost, the home of a cluster of Spinedorians, and a Hrud warren. At times, the long-dormant Ork spores would erupt, and swarms of greenskins would develop in some secretive corner of the planet. It was not until the time of the Great Crusade that Mankind returned again in force. It was the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion who cleared the planet of its life forms and again planted the flag of Humanity upon it. Once more, the planet was dubbed Urokleas. For over two thousand years, Mankind mined there, building hive cities and tethering spaceports to its twin moons. Minor xenos raids occurred, but it wasn't until near the middle of M32 that a great greenskin Waaagh! swept the system. It was the largest recorded Ork attack upon the Imperium, with dozens of invasions blazing across all five segmentums. Soon the Zornian System fell into Ork hands. As Urokleas was overwhelmed by greenskins, the last survivors of that world boarded the vast star freighter Dominion and escaped into the suddenly shifting Warp. The tides of the Warp had altered, making the Zornian System no longer easily accessible. Thus began a long period of stagnation for the Orks. For nearly eight thousand years Urokleas, renamed Urk, was a battleground for warring greenskin tribes. At first they fought over the ruins of the hive cities, clashing over the best loot. These battles devolved, as did the piles of plunder they fought over. As the millennia ground on, the wars continued. No leader proved large enough to gather more than a handful of the tribes or clans beneath him, so an equilibrium of squalor became the way of life. Small Ork warbands fought each other for possession of an ever-dwindling pile of scrap iron and derelict machinery. It was into this bleak cycle of futile violence that Ghazghkull was born. A Strange Path to Greatness In a curious twist of fate, the Imperium of Mankind may have had an unsuspecting hand in creating the most formidable Ork of his era, and perhaps of all time. After years of fighting Orks and monitoring their presence in outlying systems, the Imperium had learned that, under the right conditions, even sporadic Ork populations could multiply with startling speed. The rise of a strong Warlord could unite the feuding clans, triggering a mass release of spores. Should this gathering grow large enough, it would act as a beacon to Orks on nearby planets -– drawing them into a swarming migration that built with frightening intensity. In less than a Terran decade, Orks could go from being a minor nuisance to the world's dominant species. The Imperium has found that if a rising Waaagh! can be detected and countered early enough, the Orks can be broken and dispersed at little cost. Thus, in systems known to be plagued with greenskins, various watchposts are deployed. In the Zornian System the Dark Angels had established a range of monitoring stations coordinated by a command sanctum in a barren mountainous region of Urk. This hub routinely fed scans and other information back to the nearest Dark Angels vessels. In this way, the greenskin numbers were regularly checked and the Dark Angels could also keep track of the feral human populations of that system – for they were always searching for new recruiting planets from which they could draw battle-tested warriors. Ironically, it was this very monitoring station that set Ghazghkull on his journey to greatness. The stripling warrior Ghazghkull was a trooper in a Goff warband that took part in a raid upon the Space Marines' command sanctum. Although it was hidden atop a remote mountain crag on Urk, it was not safe from the Orks. Always seeking scrap, the greenskins discovered the hidden base and sought to dismantle it, triggering the base's auto-defence system. During the initial rush to claim the base, Ghazghkull was hit in the head by a bolter shell -– a shot that pulverised a large section of his cranium and turned a sizable portion of his brain to absolute mush. It was quite possible that the young and profusely bleeding Ghazghkull might have been left for dead then and there but for two circumstances. Ghazghkull got back to his feet -– a sign of toughness and grit that any Goff respected. Also, it was widely known that a particularly addled Deathskulls Painboy was paying those who brought him fresh material to work with. The carrion birds did not feed on Ghazghkull that day, as his own mob guided him onwards. He was a stumbling wreck and had to hold his bleeding brains in with both hands, but they eventually reached the Deathskulls outpost of Rustspike. There, his own mob traded Ghazghkull to Mad Dok Grotsnik for the sum total of three teef and a new Choppa. The Great Green Visions Ghazghkull came out of his haze immediately after Mad Dok Grotsnik performed his pivotal operation. That he awoke was a surprise to both parties, for Grotsnik had replaced part of the Goff warrior's skull and brain with bionics, wires, and Squig sinew -– holding it all in place by riveting on adamantium plates. More amazement followed. Ghazghkull could see more clearly than he ever had before. This had little to do with his eyesight or new bionik eye -– which truthfully was always a bit out of focus. Rather, for the first time in his short life, Ghazghkull awoke with a brand new vision -– it was his destiny to rally all of Orkdom and to lead them on the greatest Waaagh! of all time. It was now his belief that he was in direct contact with Gork and Mork, the Great Green Gods of the Orks, and Ghazghkull realised he had been chosen as the living embodiment of their divine wishes. They wanted him to lead the way towards the greatest battles in the galaxy. The first to fall beneath Ghazghkull's ironshod heel was the Deathskulls Warlord, Dregmek. Ghazghkull had just emerged from Mad Dok Grotsnik's grimy tent and was still rubbing his shiny adamantium-plated pate when Dregmek approached. Striding down the street that ran between the corrugated shacks of the derelict Deathskulls outpost, Dregmek demanded to know what a Goff was doing within the boundaries of Rustspike. Behind Dregmek, his entourage of Nobz guffawed, anticipating a bit of sport. Undaunted by the massive cobbled-together kombi-weapon that the Deathskulls Warlord was waving in his direction, Ghazghkull advanced, knobby fists clenched. Dregmek, expecting exactly such a move from a Goff, opened fire. Every barrel of his kustom weapon began to blaze -– the air was filled with flying projectiles and the flashing of half a dozen gun muzzles emitted blinding strobes of light. Perhaps it was a sign from Gork (or possibly Mork), a stroke of divine intervention to save their prophet, as although explosions blossomed at his feet and bullets stitched patterns alongside him, Ghazghkull advanced untouched. The only sounds were the last of the spent shells clattering to the ground, the spinning whir of empty ammo hoppers, a few desperate trigger clicks, the heavy tread of iron boots and finally a rusty squeak as Dregmek's iron jaw fell open. So savage was the pummelling that Ghazghkull delivered with his bare hands that Dregmek's Nobz cheered despite themselves. The headbutt, delivered from Ghazghkull's newly armoured skull, finished the job with a resounding clang. Straddling the pulped body of his foe, Ghazghkull announced that this was only the beginning. He bellowed to the gaping onlookers that he was the Prophet of Gork and Mork, and, furthermore, his bull-voice roared that if anyone was looking for some of the devastation he had just delivered to their former Warlord, then they could step up one at a time or rush altogether -– he cared not. After another hour of solid fighting -– a battle in which Ghazghkull did not himself take any more damage than a scratch -– he had taken over as rightful ruler of Rustspike. Though it was hard to see much with their bruised and battered faces, it seemed to his new followers that Ghazghkull grew larger before their eyes. Urk United By crushing the tribes within reach of his new stronghold, Ghazghkull began to increase his horde. In addition to the Deathskulls that had followed Dregmek, there were now several Goff mobs beneath the young Warlord. As tales of Ghazghkull's deeds circulated through the scrapheap villages and makeshift fortresses of Urk, Orks began to leave their tribes and head to Rustspike, looking to be part of something bigger than their own dismal warbands, fighting over the same old scrap. They wished to go to war with this new boss who claimed to talk to Gork and Mork, who asserted that one day they would find richer targets. Soon, Rustspike grew so overcrowded that it was impossible to spit and hit the ground, so Ghazghkull went west. It was on the cracked plains of Da Big Wasteland that Ghazghkull met his first setback. He had entered the territory of the Bad Moons, the richest and most envied of the local clans. The Bad Moon leader was Warboss Snazzdakka, and none could match the mix of firepower and mobility that was his bright yellow Battlewagon brigade. When Snazzdakka saw Ghazghkull's hordes marching across his lands, he ordered his totem pole raised and the tents collapsed and, faster than a Runtherd could throttle a wayward Grot, the tribe was on the move. In the running skirmishes that followed, Snazzdakka and his boyz were always able to lob a few shells into Ghazghkull's hordes before driving off out of range of retaliation. Ghazghkull had already proven his superior brawling skills by overpowering, bludgeoning and working over all who dared challenge or defy him. Now, however, he was engaged in a battle of wits and tactics. Here too, the up-and-coming Warlord would display not just his superiority, but the kind of brutal showmanship that makes Orks punch their fists into the air and raise raucous cheers. Within days, Ghazghkull unleashed a number of countermeasures –- any one of which would have proved too much for the Bad Moons to overcome. He had his ladz sabotage the supply dumps where Snazzdakka refuelled his Battlewagons. Ghazghkull then gauged the wind and ordered several shantytowns put to the flame. The thick, acrid smoke drifted over the cracked plains, hiding the exact whereabouts of his troops' movements and making it impossible for the Bad Moons to flee until Ghazghkull's infantry was right on top of them. Most impressively, Ghazghkull had coerced the fastest Ork on Urk to join him by out-racing him in a one-on-one duel of speed. All who saw it agreed that only the divine might of Gork and Mork could have allowed the now hulking Goff Warlord to outpace Grand Speedboss Shazfrag of the Evil Sunz. Each and every one of Ghazghkull's tactics worked, wearing down the Bad Moons so that their defeat was inevitable. As the humbled Snazzdakka watched, Ghazghkull ordered the Bad Moon Meks to fashion an enormous power klaw from the rubble of their ruined tanks. So did all the Bad Moons on the planet fall into line. So large had Ghazghkull's horde grown that no warband on Urk could hope to stand before his sweeping onslaught. Only the foolish or the stubborn even attempted to stand apart from the meteoric rise of this great greenskin champion. One such stubborn fool was Snakebite Warboss Grudbolg. It took a long, bloody week to subdue the Snakebites under Grudbolg, and Ghazghkull was forced to decapitate the scarred old monster twice before finally winning his loyalty. When challenged to a headbutting contest by the hulking Goff champion, Ugrak, Ghazghkull was like a piledriver, sinking his foe a full foot into the ground and knocking him unconscious. Ugrak's Nobz mob was so stunned that their undefeated leader had lost that they did not see Ghazghkull striding towards them. In a fury, Ghazghkull worked his way through the Nobz, leaving each senseless. When the heads of Ugrak and his Nobz finally cleared, they quite sensibly pledged eternal allegiance to Ghazghkull. Battles of attrition had raged across the surface of Urk for nearly eight thousand years, with small tribes continually rising and falling, each time battering themselves and those around them into submission. No great leader had ever emerged from the endless cycle; over all that time, none could unite the tribes. Until now... Ghazghkull's Destiny It took six years for Ghazghkull to fully subjugate Urk. Now grown larger than any Warlord ever seen on the planet, he basked in his domination. Inspired by the spirits of the rising Waaagh! and Ghazghkull's impassioned speeches about conquering the stars, the Orks swarmed about the planet's surface in a flurry of activity. A smattering of ramshackle ships begin to arrive, as Orks from across the Zornian System felt the siren call and hastened to join. For the first time, groups of Meks worked together, building in ways never contemplated before. Never before had they been able to mass their squalid resources, but now all of the scrapheaps were as one. Crazed energies flowed as they cobbled together vast battle fortresses, new weapons and towering engines of destruction. All of Urk's greenskins moved with a sense of destiny, an overwhelming realisation of their duty, their very purpose for being -– and then the sun flickered. All the greenskins looked up at the suddenly dimmed sun that had always lit the planet of Urk. All save Ghazghkull himself were cowed. The superstitious Orks dropped their weapons and spanners and stared upwards, slack-jawed in wonder at the celestial phenomenon. The sun flared, blazed – and once more, its rays blinked. In his booming voice, Ghazghkull assured the quavering greenskins that this was a sign from Gork and Mork. It was telling them that it was time to leave Urk behind, that it was time for the galaxy to feel the might of the growing Waaagh!. Even as the Warlord spoke, a lone beam of green-tinted light illuminated the Prophet of the Great Green Gods. He told his followers to stockpile all the arms and ammunition they could, for they were leaving within the week. As there were few operating aircraft upon Urk, and the Meks had only just started to construct more, some greenskins wondered how this might happen. A single glare from Ghazghkull, however, was enough to silence their questions and instil in them, if not confidence, then at least a fear of asking how any such thing might be accomplished. The next day brought no dawn. In this case, however, it was nothing to do with the strange behaviour of Urk's sun. The Warp currents had changed again, reverting to patterns similar to those of ages ago. As the tides of the Warp roiled and twisted, they had also deposited an enormous Space Hulk into realspace, vomiting forth the conglomerate craft in the Zornian System. The hulk now drifted in Urk's orbit, blocking out the light from the flickering sun. Exodus As solar flares and radiation storms wafted from Urk's tortured sun, Ghazghkull turned to his Meks and bade them secure the space hulk using super-heavy traktor kannons. A few of the available spacecraft were equipped with harpoon rockets, and they fired these off to tether the colossal space hulk to one of Urk's twin moons. For the moment, the space hulk was pinned –- but all knew it would not be so for long. Under Ghazghkull's orders, the remaining Orks rushed to assist the Meks. They worked non-stop to craft as many crude transport ships as they could. There were perhaps one hundred constructions worthy of being called ships, while other craft were built to complete only a single journey. There were many hundreds of these crude rockets, each incapable of being steered, each with Orks and equipment wedged into every hold and crawlspace. Boarding the largest of this crude fleet, Ghazghkull led the great exodus from the planet to seize the space hulk. With exhaust flashes and more than their share of premature detonations and mid-air collisions, the departing craft filled the sky. Some ships struck the space hulk's outer decks and detonated to blow gaping holes into the superstructure. A few rockets ploughed deep into the hulk to deposit their Ork cargo, while the most sturdily constructed ships actually had the wherewithal to fly about the vast space hulk to seek out landing sites -– or, at the least, to enter the vast hulk through the massive holes blown into it by the less fortunate rockets. Alas, as is so often the case, the space hulk was not unoccupied. As soon as the first wave of Orks landed they were attacked by daemonic entities. Burna Boyz, cutting their way through bulkheads, had to suddenly shift from slicing metal to defending themselves against a tide of Daemons. Gouts of dirty orange flame were met in kind by arcane blue jets, as the Burna Boyz traded scorching death with prancing Pink Horrors. Before their ships had even settled, Speed Freeks launched themselves from cargo ramps, racing down cavernous corridors, guns blazing. Less than half of the Ork spacecraft were able to lift off once again, but these disengaged in order to go back to Urk's surface to ferry more greenskins into the battle. The fighting took weeks, during which time billions of greenskins were airlifted off Urk to join the fray. Ghazghkull himself led the spearhead that fought its way to the centre of the space hulk. There, at the black heart of the jumbled amalgamation, was an ancient craft –- none other than the vast star freighter Dominion. After leaving Urk –- then called Urokleas –- to escape the Ork attack, the craft became lost in the Warp, its terrified human cargo attracting the horrific creatures that dwelled there. The Dominion had returned home, but where its Warp engines had once been located there was now a huge Warp rift -– a darksome hole from which the energies of the Immaterium poured forth. The fight to take over the Daemon-held space hulk was a bitter battle through ever-changing confines. Neither side showed mercy, hacking at each other in the narrow corridors and turning vast cargo bays into slaughter-pits where entire armies crashed headlong. Now and again, newcomers would join the fight -– a fresh tide of Daemons sweeping from the space hulk's centre, or an Ork rocket crashing through to deliver its living payload. Slowly, the Orks drove the Daemon host back, but at every junction lay an ambush and casualties were high. It was Mad Dok Grotsnik who led a charge to win the landing bays of what must have been an old Imperial transport. The landing craft berthed within were still occupied by the skeletons of their long-dead pilots. The few craft that were still operational were commandeered to aid the transport efforts. It was Ugrak's Uglies -– the Goff Nobz Mob –- that fought their way into the asteroid embedded deep within the space hulk. There, in magma-worn tunnels, they pitted Power Klaws against hellblades, and in the end only Ugrak's kombi-skorcha swept the path clear. In the larger holds, Battlewagons lowered their deff rollas to mash all opposition, before being countered by Soul Grinders -- hulking Daemon Engines whose metal claws shredded the Ork vehicles. Soon, Ork Tankbustas were hunting the Soul Grinders, crawling through air vents to send rokkits corkscrewing into their unnatural foes, blowing them apart sprays of flame and ichor. Behind the front waves of fighting came the Meks, welding over patches, re-sealing airlocks and repairing their battered engines of war. Having driven the daemonic hosts before him, Ghazghkull ordered the massed firepower of his entourage to be turned against the tear in reality. To his frustration, this did nothing to it. With a bestial roar, and leaking raw green energy from his reconstructed skull, Ghazghkull charged the rent. To further anger the Warlord, his power klaw proved equally ineffectual and, with an almighty challenge, Ghazghkull unleashed the full thunder of his best headbutt. There was a flash of green, an audible pop, and, at last, the rift collapsed upon itself. Whether it was the force of that blow, or the latent psychic energy within Ghazghkull, it was done, and the Daemon threat ended -– at least for a time. The space hulk, which Ghazghkull named Wurld Killa, was now in Ork control. Just as superheated gas clouds swept over Urk, Wurld Killa shifted back into the Warp. Warp Journey of Wurld Killa ]] How long Ghazghkull and his followers drifted in the Warp is not known. Time passes strangely there, and Orks keep no records. They explored the bounds of the vast space hulk, finding strange technology –- ancient machines from humanity's lost past and other apparatus beyond their comprehension. For some, especially the Deathskulls, this meandering search including nicking everything not bolted down. As they worked alongside Burna Boyz whose arc-welders cut through metal, the Orks were able to appropriate everything, no matter how well fastened it was. On Ghazghkull's command, many Meks began working on a force field projector. Meanwhile, competing warbands fought to gather scrap and minor wars broke out over salvage rights. This rivalry kept tensions at just the right level to prevent the volatile Orks from growing too bored. Sheets of iron decking were reworked into Battlewagons, used to "plate up" Stompas, or beaten into crude body armour to outfit Nobz. In the mad furore to claim metal, several warbands were swept into the Warp when they overstretched their boundaries and cut away sections of the space hulk's outermost walls. It was this kind of foolishness that allowed Warp entities to re-enter Wurld Killa. Several more daemonic incursions plagued the journey, and Ghazghkull had to drive out the worst of these Warp offensives personally. With vicious battles breaking out across the space hulk, there was an abundance of violent Waaagh! energy, and the Orks thrived and multiplied. Soon, every cranny of the craft was bursting with more greenskins. Everywhere, swarms of grots scurried; the halls rang to the sound of chants, shoota blasts, and the commands of the ever-busy Meks. Gradually, the Daemon tides ebbed; the jubilant Orks were beginning to get restless when sudden jolts alerted all that the lumbering space hulk was slowing down. With gut-lurching suddenness, Wurld Killa ripped back into realspace. What had been an empty void was now filled with the massive space hulk. Aboard the sprawling vessel, klaxons blared and Ghazghkull's voice boomed out of speakers and down corridors, telling all to prepare for battle. Like a tidal wave, the momentum of Wurld Killa sent the space hulk crashing forward. It smashed aside defence stations while panicked picket-ships accelerated to get out of the path of the hurtling wall of space junk. In 941.M41, the Orks emerged at the edge of a star system vital to the Imperium, heading straight for the core planet. Before them sprawled the immensity that was Armageddon –- an industrial giant of Mankind's realm. The planet lay roughly ten thousand light years to the galactic northeast of Terra. It was a vital node of navigational channels, and its countless manufactorums supplied munitions to Astra Militarum regiments throughout the sector and beyond. No force in the galaxy could now stop Wurld Killa from crash landing onto Armageddon. Guided by his visions, Ghazghkull did not wish to halt his flight; rather, he welcomed the headlong plunge towards the world below. The acceleration built, and he bellowed joyous war cries as the hull blazed with fire and the hulk thundered down from Armageddon's sky like a scrap-iron avalanche. Up until this point, Ghazghkull had only made a name for himself on Urk -– a little known and soon-to-be dead star system. Soon, however, his name would send ripples of fear across hundreds of thousands of worlds. Now, Ghazghkull was on a collision course with greatness. Surrounding Imperial fleets, long-ranged missiles and the planet's orbital defence lasers did their best to stave off the inevitable. Their firepower managed to shear away a few chunks of the oncoming space hulk, but they could not stop the terminal dive of Wurld Killa, nor could they alter its course. Although shorn of a good deal of its mass by the desperate salvoes, the enormous space hulk plunged through Armageddon's polluted atmosphere to crash-land upon its largest continent, Armageddon Prime. The deep impact of the landing shook the entire world, and its blast wave caused untold devastation. A cloud of debris shrouded the sun. Hundreds of thousands of Orks were instantly immolated by the cataclysmic contact of the landing. Their losses, however, were but a tiny fraction of their number. As the shock faded, a few of the Orks realised that they should all have died in that epic crash. Ghazghkull claimed it was the protection of the gods, although the force field projector absorbing the brunt of that impact doubtlessly helped. Regardless, the Orks roared their approval at being alive after the exhilarating ride. Eager to release their pent-up aggression, they poured out of drop ramps or simply blasted new exit holes through the already torn and rent ruins of the remaining hulls. Ghazghkull divided his followers into five distinct hordes, each under one of his most powerful Warlords. These were leaders Ghazghkull had subdued upon Urk, ferocious Orks that had learned by fighting alongside him. Under the dust storm's darkness, the towering Waaagh! overlord pointed out the direction each of his sub-commanders should take. With a wave of his power klaw, Ghazghkull launched endless columns of Ork war machines and living seas of infantry. With one voice, many millions bellowed. The Second War for Armageddon The defenders of Armageddon were not ready for what hit them. The Astra Militarum and the planetary defence forces of Armageddon may have been well-equipped, but they were wholly unprepared for the waves of violence that swept over their armies. It was clear that the humans underestimated the strategic ability of their foes. They had fought Orks before, but these greenskins were different; this was not some petty Warlord's formulaic assault –- this was Waaagh! Ghazghkull. Although none of his sub-commanders displayed the sheer audacity and cunning of their master, Ghazghkull had beat enough into their skulls about tactics for some of it to stick. They easily overwhelmed the Planetary Defence Force legions that advanced out of the hives to contain them. First, the Orks launched assaults to pin the foe in place on the flat ash wastes, while biker mobs and Battlewagon brigades raced around to encircle their foes, cutting off their supply lines. Then the greenskins tightened the noose. They set up their Mek Gun batteries to pummel the panicked defenders left in the ever-shrinking cauldron. Desperate attempts to break out were met by gunlines. Mercilessly, the Orks mowed down anything that moved, guffawing at the lines of 'umies that advanced to meet only death, aping their final curses as they twitched their last upon the bloodstained ash. With the plains cleared, the Orks advanced on the hive cities and there they were astounded. Built atop sprawling ashblown desert wastes, the hives rose up taller than mountains. These were the great factory-cities of the Imperium, the lifeblood of its non-stop war efforts. This was industrial might on a scale never before seen by the Orks. The Meks gazed at the hives with joy, imagining how they could repurpose such works, what they could build with such colossal hoards of materiel. The Fall of Hive Volcanus The Imperium's defence of the hives proved more formidable. The Astra Militarum's numbers were augmented by every regiment available, along with hastily-armed citizens. A long series of trenches and redoubts encircled each vast walled complex. Ghazghkull took one look at Hive Volcanus before vowing boldly that it would fall in two days' time. Although his hordes were numerous enough to overwhelm the gates, Ghazghkull did not want to waste his strength. He had yet to unleash the full terror of his Gargant Big Mobs, but he thought that prodigious firepower should be saved for when it was truly required. Instead, his plan to take the enormous factory-city reflected his cunning. It was simple, it just needed flawless execution and seamless cooperation –- a tall order for a typical Waaagh!-leader, but not so for Ghazghkull. The outer barriers were targeted by Blitz Brigades –- armoured wedges of Battlewagons. The first wave bore rams, and it was their duty to break open the outer walls, using their tracks to carry them over the rubble. The second group of attackers followed in the wake of the smoke-churning Ork Battlewagons; these were the mobile infantry –- mostly Goff Boyz, with mobs of Burna Boyz amongst them. The third wave was composed of Skorchas -– their orders were to drive through the breaches and to clear any defences with sweeping flame. Traktor beams would target the gates as the Battlewagons cleared the last trench. Timed correctly, the loaded wagons would be at top speed just as the doors were ripped off their hinges. Secondary plans included a Stormboyz airdrop and Stompas with wrecking balls opening up holes at strategic points. When the waves of infantry were finally released, they could enter Volcanus at will. The plan worked almost too well. The hive would have fallen in a single day were it not for its fierce resistance. Within the narrow confines of the hive's underways, desperate humans resorted to all manner of traps and ambushes. Despite their heroics, hundreds of thousands of Orks swept into Hive Volcanus, and its population was massacred or enslaved. After Hive Volcanus was captured, the remaining hives of Armageddon Prime soon followed. Columns of human refugees stretched past the horizon. All of Armageddon Prime lay under the massive metal heel of Ghazghkull. What were once manufactorums were converted to workshops swarming with Orks. Slaves were worked to death stripping their own cities of every scrap of resource that the Meks could use to fuel the greenskin war machine. The Waaagh! proceeded southwards towards the heavily populated continent of Armageddon Secundus. Eternal Enemy Yarrick leads the defence of Hades Hive]] Being somewhat soft, it is extraordinary for 'umies to gain respect from Orks – especially greenskins led by a stoic and battle-hungry Goff like Ghazghkull. Although Space Marines are regarded with esteem for their skills in battle –- none more so than Commander Dante of the Blood Angels –- it was an Imperial Commissar that drew the most admiration from the Orks. Here was an uncompromising warrior –- as eager to shoot his own ladz as the foe, if that's what it took to gain victory. Commissar Sebastian Yarrick was certainly a thorn in Ghazghkull's side, for the greenskins reckon that it was he alone that willed the defenders of Hades Hive to hold on for so long. The Orks gradually learned from their captives that the defenders of Hades had grown to fear Yarrick as much as they dreaded the fury of Ghazghkull. To the Orks, this was the kind of leader they could respect. The fact that he wore Goff colours –- black with red trim –- boosted his esteem even further. It is said that of all Ghazghkull's foes, Yarrick was the only one that he ever cursed -– high praise indeed. Those Orks that came face-to-face with the infamous "'Umie Boss" often expressed disappointment. In person, Yarrick was only human-sized, although this was lessened somewhat because he did at least wear an Ork power klaw and bear an evil eye. Amongst the Boyz, it was said that those Orks that recognised who they were up against were always slain -– for they stood in gape-jawed disbelief at Yarrick's insulting puniness and so left themselves open to a deathblow. The wily Orks acknowledged the value of this tactic, even if it was a sly, sneaky Blood Axe kind of trick. The Real Battle Begins ]] When Armageddon's Season of Shadows set in -– the cyclical time when the planet's volcanic mountains erupted -– the turbulent skies were permanently crimson-hued. To the Orks, this was another sign of their impending victory. To get to Armageddon Secundus the Orks had to cross a swathe of equatorial jungle considered impenetrable by the humans. The foetid swamp region was a morass of mudpits that could submerge armies at a time, and it was filled with ferocious wild beasts. The greenskins revelled in it, attacking the flora and fauna while the Meks erected pontoon bridges or projected force fields across the sinking bogs. By their drive and cobbled ingenuity, the Ork hordes pressed through faster than Imperial armies could march. Infantry, armoured columns, Stompa Mobs and towering Gargants crossed the crude bridges and emerged on the far side of the jungles. Once again the Orks caught the humans unprepared and smashed through their defensive positions. As the Orks raced across the ash deserts towards the hive cities, the towering god-engines and tank companies of Mankind advanced out into the barrens to meet them. From that point on, the battles were more fiercely fought, and Ork casualties began to mount. First was the clash on the parched desert known as the Death Barrens. While the colossal war engines of the Iron Skulls Titan Legion duelled with the Gargants, the massed enemy tanks began to blow great holes in the Ork hordes. The greenskins did not waver, but continued to advance, albeit more slowly, into that thunderous barrage. The energies of the Waaagh! might have been drained then and there were it not for the Dread Mobs. Clanking forward, these iron-plated tank-killers strode through the shellstorm. A land armada of Deff Dreads, Killa Kans and hulking Morkanauts lurched into the enemy armour formations. Explosions lit up the plains as power klaws wrenched off turrets. Buzzsaw arms reached in to savage the exposed crew, and the screams of the eviscerated victims were music to the Orks' ears. With the foes' tanks reduced to smoking wreckage, the Stompas and Deff Dreads used their firepower to tip the scales on the evenly matched duel between the Gargants and the Titans. Towering mushroom clouds rose from the destroyed Imperial Titans, and the concussive blasts of their detonations slew many Orks, but when the shockwaves ceased, the green tide flowed over the enormous craters. The Bloodiest of Sieges The sieges that followed brought the Armageddon war to a new state of savagery. By now the humans knew what lay in store for them, and their resistance stiffened. The Orks sacked Infernus Hive after Blood Axes struck a deal with its corrupt Governor, but they could not break through the great hive cities of Hades or Helsreach. In desperation, the Imperial side launched virus bombs -– wicked and proscribed technology from their distant past. Hundreds of thousands of Orks died, but still they pressed on, battering themselves against the hive cities for little gain. With his sub-commanders flummoxed on how to break through, Ghazghkull was forced to direct the assaults himself. Ghazghkull tried many ploys: lightning assaults, feints, overwhelming wave attacks and massed bombardments. Air-dropped Stormboyz attacked from the skies while the sewer tunnels were infiltrated by the craftiest Kommandos. At Helsreach, these stratagems paid off, each offensive advancing more deeply into that seaport hive. With the streets red with blood, Ghazghkull's final tactic -– to gather the Weirdboyz together so their Waaagh!-addled minds blasted forth a psychic storm -– worked perfectly. Paralysed by madness, the defenders were overrun. In Hades, each of Ghazghkull's moves was parried. The Stormboyz were ripped from the skies by anti-aircraft fire, the Kommandos were met by tunnel-fighters in a running battle that stymied the underground advance. Siege engines were sabotaged and suicide teams took down Gargants. The defence of Hades Hive was masterminded by Commissar Yarrick, who was destined to become the most respected 'umie that Waaagh! Ghazghkull ever met. The Unexpected Counterstrike Chapter arrive at Acheron to take the fight to the Orks]] As Ghazghkull fixated on tearing Hades Hive apart, on his command another Ork army was set to overwhelm the hive city of Acheron. But that was before the sky exploded. Orbital bombardment blasted craters amongst the Ork hordes. Even as they gaped skyward, they saw Thunderhawks peel out of the cloud cover, the roar of their engines audible over the concussive shockwave of their bombing runs. The Space Marines -– the finest warriors in the Emperor's service – had arrived. The Blood Angels, the Ultramarines and the Salamanders attacked, and the Orks tasted the bitterness of crushing defeat for the first time. At that moment, if Ghazghkull had turned his attention to the deteriorating situation, it is likely he could have rallied his armies and driven off the Space Marine counter-attack. Had he done so, Armageddon would likely have fallen. However, the completion of the siege of Hades Hive had become an obsession. Prophet though he was, in the red haze of battle, Ghazghkull no longer heard any calling save to grind his iron boots upon those who had dared defy him. Finally, Ghazghkull's own Bullyboyz broke down the last blast door. With the inner gates now open, Ghazghkull threw everything at the hive city, unleashing his final rampage. The Space Marines arrived too late to save Hades Hive, and those inside were massacred nearly to a man. With his numbers depleted and widely scattered, Ghazghkull commanded the last of his reinforcements to besiege Tartarus Hive. The fate of the planet hung in the balance, but the Space Marines were quick to redeploy. A Drop Pod assault struck the Orks even as Gorkanauts and Stompas smashed down the hive's gates. Blindsided again, the greenskins were pushed back and on the verge of breaking when Ghazghkull arrived. His counter-attack was just beginning to wrest the initiative back when Ghazghkull and his bodyguard disappeared altogether. Rumours that their illustrious Warboss had fallen spread like wildfire amongst the Orks, and they wavered and broke. With this, the Imperium thought they had driven the Orks from Armageddon. It was not so. Many fought their way into the ash wastes and escaped, eventually reaching the depths of the equatorial jungles. Moreover, Ghazghkull was not slain. Some say the hand of Gork reached down to extricate his chosen one. Ghazghkull's few Ork detractors claimed he had fled, but however it happened, the Warboss escaped off-planet. Between the Wars for Armageddon After failing to conquer Armageddon the first time, Ghazghkull's situation as a Warlord deteriorated, as his defeat diminished his standing and challengers to his position started to manifest. Ghazghkull proclaimed that as the chosen of Gork and Mork, he was the only one who could defeat the 'umie wiv the evil eye. Unlike his underlings, Ghazghkull was canny enough to understand that attempting to stop the pursuing humans was doomed to failure: not unlike an Ork WAAAGH!, a human crusade thrived on strife and victory, and needed to be exhausted first. Ghazghkull achieved this by seemingly running away and remaining tantalisingly just out of reach of his pursuers, sacrificing to Yarrick those of his underlings who disobeyed or challenged him. This he did for 10 standard years until he could spring his trap on his pursuers. Luring them to the planet of Golgotha, he blinded the exhausted and over-stretched human commanders with a chance for victory over his seemingly depleted Ork forces. Unkown to the Imperium, a large Space Hulk had deposited a second, lesser WAAAGH! on Golgotha, which was waiting in large underground cave complexes. Ghazghkull had a base constructed that was intended to give to the Imperial attackers the impression that he was organising a last stand. The Ork Warlord went as far as to sacrifice his remaining Gargants to a pointless flanking manoeuvre, all in order to make the humans commit fully to the field against him on Golgotha. Once they did, Ghazghkull caught them between the hammer of his hidden Greenskin troops and the anvil of his base, while his Space Hulk drove off the forces of the Imperial Navy orbiting the world. Ghazghkull wanted to confront Yarrick himself, but when he found the elderly Commissar making a last stand at the wreck of his Baneblade (which had deliberately rammed one of the Gargants), Ghazghkull saw an opportunity to finally display his dominance over the other Greenskins, and he ordered the human captured instead. Ghazghkull wanted to use Yarrick to assert his dominance over the other Orks, and to prove he understood how humans "worked". He first had Yarrick thrown down the garbage chute of his Space Hulk, proclaiming the human would escape. The other Orks were doubtful, since none of them had ever managed to survive the ordeal, but Yarrick would indeed resurface a few solar days later. Ghazghkull then had Yarrick thrown amongst the other Imperial prisoners, foretelling that the human would find a way to strike back and kill them all. True enough, Yarrick soon instigated a revolt and managed to reach the Space Hulk's bridge, where he sought to initiate its self-destruction by activating all the vessel's propulsion systems at once. He nearly succeeded at this endeavour before the Orks stopped him. This time, the other Orks were convinced that Ghazghkull could indeed predict the human's behaviour, and Ghazghkull ordered his Painboy Grotsnik to return the human's bionics. Ghazghkull then had Yarrick escorted by his Boyz to an intact shuttlecraft, where he allowed the human to leave the Space Hulk, telling him to prepare for the Orks' return to Armageddon. This nonchalant show of dominance firmly cemented Ghazghkull's place as Warlord of his massive WAAAGH!, and he would go on to prepare his second and far larger invasion of Armageddon over the next forty standard years. The Third War for Armageddon Yarrick during the Third War for Armageddon]] During the fifty seven years following the Second War for Armageddon, Ghazghkull regrouped his forces, and reassessed his strategy. Remembering his defeat at Hades Hive on Armageddon 57 years before, he was not eager to repeat his mistake. he intended that Hades Hive would be one of the first places to fall. He led several small attacks on Imperial worlds to test his new methods and technology, and fifty seven years to the day of the previous invasion, he again led the Orks to the Armageddon System in the largest Ork WAAAGH! ever unleashed on the Imperium of Man. The Third War for Armageddon waged by both sides was long and bloody, leaving the vital world of Armageddon in a continual state of war. After the Third War had been fought for a year, Ghazghkull left his forces behind, leaving the system in a modified Space Hulk. He was pursued by High Marshal Helbrecht and an entire Crusade of the Black Templars Space Marines, along with Commissar Yarrick. The whereabouts and fate of Ghazghkull and this pursuit force are currently unknown. Ultimate Warlord When the galaxy-spanning Imperium of Mankind first encountered Ghazghkull, its leaders presumed he was like all the other Ork Warlords before him. Perhaps he was larger and stronger than most, but no more than that. After several battles, they begrudgingly granted that Ghazghkull possessed more beast-like cunning than was exhibited by the other leaders of his savage race, but they still gave him little credence. A very few of his human antagonists started to grasp the magnitude of Ghazghkull's ambition, but only by the time of the Third Battle for Armageddon did they realise that this was an Ork Warlord beyond any they had previously encountered. Those opponents who have underestimated Ghazghkull only do so once, for they rarely survive contact with the Warlord. The few fortunate enough to escape speak of raw power and armies beyond count –- all guided by the same grand vision. Unlike other Orks, Ghazghkull has shown a remarkable ability to learn from his failures –- with each fight, he grows stronger and more cunning. Over the years, he has refined his tactics, devising new strategies based on his observations in previous battles. More ominous still for his foes, Ghazghkull has developed the ability to experiment -– to test out new concepts in order to better hone them. Whether the voices Ghazghkull hears in his head are truly those of Gork and Mork is unknown. What cannot be gainsaid, however, is that the canny Ork appears to have some prescient ability. Time and again, the Ork Warlord appears in exactly the right place and at the right time. Ghazghkull has proven to be a master strategist, the greatest of his kind. He outmanoeuvres his enemies, steamrolling over their assaults and sidestepping their carefully laid traps as if anticipating them in advance. In his lengthy campaigns, Ghazghkull has shown to be a masterful organiser whose prepared assaults rival the meticulous battle plans of the Astra Militarum. However, there is nothing of the hidebound tactician in Ghazghkull, for he is an innovator and a cunning opportunist, ever ready to shift his troops to exploit any sudden weakness an opponent might present. And there are no fighters more brutal –- more joyous in the act of crushing their foes –- than the raucous, battle-loving warriors of Waaagh! Ghazghkull. As some of the Imperium's foremost tactical minds have already learned, Ghazghkull is their strategic match –- or more. But the news grows worse for those that would oppose the oncoming green wave. Ghazghkull's hordes are growing in number and skill, and he is gathering under his sway not just mindless followers, eager to do his bidding, but also mighty Warlords who would not bow before any other Ork's dominion save for Ghazghkull's. Confident in his own matchless superiority, Ghazghkull has avoided a common pitfall amongst his green-skinned kind –- that of attempting to do everything himself. Other Warlords feel they must always lead from the front, spearheading all attacks, while keeping as watchful an eye on their own lieutenants as they do upon the enemy; after all, it is a personal disaster for a Warlord to be surpassed in deeds by any of his underlings. By contrast, Ghazghkull's authority is so absolute that he need not display such caution. Instead, he cunningly deploys his forces to where their talents are best used, exemplifying his age-old maxim: "Don’t send a Speed Freek to do a Dread Mob's job." Due to Ghazghkull's strategic prowess, his ability to adapt, and the sheer force of his character, he now leads the largest force of greenskins seen in millennia. This Waaagh! is poised not just to ravage a few planets or trample a star system or two; it is on a course to conquer the entire galaxy! Companions Ghazghkull also had a banner carrier known as Makari the Grot. Makari is thought to be one of the luckiest Gretchin in Orkish history as he managed to survive for nine years before Ghazghkull sat on him and then fed him to a Squig. Game History Ghazghkull first appeared in White Dwarf Magazine 134. He was the "Warboss" of Andy Chambers' sample Goff army list (notably the weaker of two possible choices for the leader of an Ork army at the time, the other being a 'Warlord'); his 'attributes' of an admanatium skull and the ability to call on the WAAAGH! were randomly generated - although at the time they merely conferred an extra headbutt attack in close combat and a minor psychic power, called Hammerhand, that doubled his attacks once per game. The first Ghazghkull model was an in-house conversion. Ghazghkull's next appearance was in the Battle for Armageddon board game, based around the events of the Second War for Armageddon, featured opposite Commissar Yarrick. Inspired by the game's backstory, Jervis Johnson wrote up special rules for the two characters' use in Warhammer 40,000 and Epic 40,000 games, making Ghazghkull one of the first two "special characters" ever released by Games Workshop. The special rules were based on the random attributes selected by Andy Chambers back at Ghazghkull's first appearance. Rules for Ghazghkull appeared in the Third Edition of Warhammer 40,000, and a new model was created for the worldwide campaign organised around the the Third War for Armageddon. The rules were updated to reflect Ghazghkull at a point just prior to the outbreak of the Third War. Wargear *'Cybork Body' *'Mega Armour' *'Big Shoota' *'Power Klaw' *'Bosspole' *'Stikkbombs' Sources *''Codex: Armageddon'' (3rd Edition), pp. 24-25 *''Codex: Imperial Guard'' (5th Edition), pg. 63 *''Codex: Orks'' (7th Edition), pp. 76-78, 82-83, 86-89, 130, 154, 190-192 *''Codex: Orks'' (4th Edition), pg. 58 *''Codex: Orks'' (3rd Edition), pg. 40 *''Ere' We Go'' (1st Edition), pp. 34, 36-37, 48, *''Epic Armageddon'', pp. 62-69, 136-139 *''Waaagh! Ghazghkull - A Codex: Orks Supplement'' (7th Edition) *''Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook'' (6th Edition), pg. 193 *''Yarrick: Chains of Golgotha'' (Novel) by David Annandale *''White Dwarf'' 249 (AUS), "Best of Enemies" *''White Dwarf'' 248 (AUS), "Power of Da Waaagh!" *''White Dwarf'' 227 (US), "Chapter Approved: Orks - Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, Mighty Goff Warlord and Leader of the Waaagh!: Warboss," pp. 73-80 *''White Dwarf'' 176 (US), "Ork Special Characters: Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka," pp. 38-43 *''White Dwarf'' 152 (US), "Commissar Yarrick and Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka," pp. 14-22 *''White Dwarf'' 134 (US), "Waa Ghazghkull Tarknash: Sample Goff Ork Warband - The Warboss and Retinue, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka," by Andy Chambers, pp. 35-43 Category:G Category:Characters Category:Ork Category:Ork Characters